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‘Wine at Breakfast’ by Claire King

October 4, 2010 By 2 Comments

Story Title: ‘Wine at Breakfast’ by Claire King
Collection/Anthology?: Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology 3 (Bristol Review of Books Ltd.)
Date Read: 30 September 2010
Briefly: Kiev, the morning of the May Day parade, and Oleg and Valya are reluctantly forcing wine upon their fourteen-year-old daughter, Lena. Their reasons will become apparent.
Afterthoughts: ‘Wine at Breakfast’ is one of these stories that begins hazy before the mist gradually clears to reveal a rather shocking story. Such a storytelling technique is difficult to get right in my opinion, but King succeeds with much prowess. And if the reader is not abhorred from the initial shock of parents forcing alcohol upon a minor, then they certainly will be when the reasons why are brought to light. It’s interesting to note that this tale is one of a collection of Ukrainian-themed stories written by Yorkshire-born Claire King (who now lives in the French Pyrenees), and if this story is anything to go by then the collection is definitely going to be one to look out for in the future.

Rating: ★★★★☆

This story was read as part of a review of the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology, Volume 3. If you want to find out more about this anthology then I invite you to head on over and read my ‘forethoughts’ post, and/or visit the the Bristol Short Story Prize website.

Related posts:

  1. ‘Breakfast Wine’ by Kevin Barry
  2. ‘Two Girls Under an Apple Tree’ by Kate Brown
  3. ‘Marrakech’ by Darci Bysouth
  4. ‘Man Friday and the Sockball Championships’ by Mike Bonsall
  5. ‘Conservation of Angular Momentum’ by Ashley Jacob
Filed Under: Short Fiction, short stories, Short Story Reviews Tagged With: , , ,
About Rob

Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell was lined with books)

Comments

  1. Claire King says:
    November 3, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    Rob,
    Thanks so much for taking the time to read and review ‘Wine at Breakfast’. This story is a particularly important one for me.

    As you now know, I spent quite some time living and working in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people are very close to my heart and their stories are amazing. This particular story is based very closely on true events and the main character was a good friend of mine.

    I’ve been working on other projects recently but hope to have the collection of shorts set in Ukraine ready next Spring. They started off wanting to be a novel, but finished as a collection of closely linked short stories. I may even look to e-publishing for that one.

    I’m so pleased you enjoyed Wine at Breakfast, and thank you for my first review (it was much less painful than I thought)!

    Claire

    Reply
  2. Rob (Twitter: )
     says:
    November 5, 2010 at 7:55 am

    Claire,
    How kind of you to drop by and offering a bit of background on your story. I’m thrilled.

    Great news about the Ukrainian-flavoured collection Claire. If the rest of the stories are anything like Wine at Breakfast then you’ve got a real winner on your hands.
    Good luck
    With warm regards
    Rob

    Reply

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